Author: Neera

James Paterson’s Formula For Success (Stop boring your audience)

Neera

​“James Patterson is a terrible writer who became very, very successful.” — Stephen King.

Could this statement be true?

How can a terrible writer become so successful that he has sold over 400 million copies of his books? Today, out of every 100 hardcovers sold, 6 are his. Is James Patterson really a terrible writer? And if so, how did he hoodwink the world to buy his books?

Is there something he knows and others don’t?

After all, James Patterson sells more books every year than any other living writer. Even more than Stephen King.

But what made him a success?

Patterson always wanted to become a writer.

Even when he was working as a copywriter for J. Walter Thompson, he would find time in his busy schedule to write every day. He would write during lunch breaks, or on flights during his business trips, or at midnight on a busy day.

His first book was rejected 31 times before it was published. However, when it was published, Patterson won the prestigious Edgar award for a best debut novel from the Mystery Writers of America. The Thomas Berryman Number was critically acclaimed, but it sold less than 10,000 copies.

Patterson wrote 6 more books after this, all of which were duds.

It was only during the process of writing the 8th book that he stumbled upon an epiphany — his writing process.

Patterson’s writing process

James Patterson had a unique writing process.

First of all, he wrote with a pencil on paper.

And before writing a novel, he would first create a long outline.

He would outline all the scenes in detail.

He would outline the protagonist and the antagonist’s backstories in detail. Sometimes, his outlines would be 50 pages long.

He would know the beginning, middle, and end before he started writing the book.

But it was only while going through the outline of his 8th book, he realized, he had already written the book. The short scenes in his long outline seemed perfect. It kept the pace of the book. Why flesh it out with more boring details only to add length to the book?

He recalled a story his editor had told him. While writing Nebraska — Bruce Springsteen picked up his guitar and created a rough demo. But he eventually realized that the demo was the record — just him and his acoustic guitar. Nothing else was needed.

Write the outline. Keep everything else out.

Patterson realized that his outline made a better book than a book filled with long, detailed scenes. And so, he made the whole book full of short chapters just 2 -3 pages long. Each chapter had just one scene, one thought.

The book, Along Came A Spider, became a page-turner. It hit the second spot on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Unknowingly, Patterson had found the magic that video game makers chase. Give quick wins to hook the readers. Readers would get satisfaction with finishing chapters, which makes them keep on turning the page.

The Magic is in the pacing

Patterson’s quick pacing and two-minute chapters hit the perfect spot for the attention-deficit population.

And Patterson realized that what he is best in the world at is not crafting stories that were memorable, or writing prose that is quotable but in pacing the stories in such a way that gave quick wins to the reader. He wrote stories ‘okay’ stories but made them fast-paced.

When he realized that, he parlayed that a step further. He focused on only writing the outlines. And then finding co-writers to flesh out his 50–80 page outlines to form a 250–300 page book.

Writers he collaborates with had to follow his rules:

  • Keep the chapters short and sweet.
  • Make the book dialogue rich because dialogues are quicker to read.
  • End as many chapters on cliffhangers as possible, even if it feels ridiculous. Because the goal is to keep the reader hooked and give them a sense of accomplishment.

That’s how, each year, James Patterson releases close to two dozen new books. Because of this strategy, Patterson has published over 350 books so far.

Librarians all over the world recommend his book to turn non-readers into readers.

This is how Patterson outsells Stephen King by a huge margin.

How can you implement James Patterson’s strategy?

The idea is to give quick wins to your audience.

Why?

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer once set out to study the lives of 26 project teams in 7 companies. They wanted to see what leads to the highest levels of creative output in a workplace.

They asked all the folks in these companies to write a daily journal of their work and thoughts. They also asked these people to rate their work days: was it a good day or a bad day?

After reading 12,000 journal entries, they found people were most motivated on the days they had made progress in their work.

Motivation followed the progress, and not the other way around.

Even more surprising, the type of progress made didn’t matter. Minor progress had an outsized impact on people’s moods and motivations.

Win quick, to win more.

Don’t bore your audience. Give them quick wins. Break progress steps down into smaller units.

The scope of the wins didn’t matter as much as the speed of the win.

Just like Patterson broke down a big chapter into six small chapters to give quick wins to his readers so that they kept on reading, you’ve got to plan your writing in a way that secures quick wins.

Because that’s what will keep your readers coming back for more.

Notes on Mental Models

Neera

A mental model is simply a representation of how something works.

Mental models are how we understand concepts and, through them, the world. Not only do they help us understand complex theories, they help us make connections with what we already know.

Mental models are great tools for learning. They help simplify complexity. We cannot keep all the details of the world in our brains, so we use models to simplify the complex into understandable and organizable chunks.

In 1990, in a famous speech, Charlie Munger, a billionaire investor and the vice chairman of Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway summed up the approach to practical wisdom through understanding mental models.

“Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ’em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience both vicarious and direct on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.”

Metal Motels are tools for thinking

The quality of our thinking is proportional to the models in our head and their usefulness in the situation at hand. The more models you have — the bigger your toolbox — the more likely you are to have the right models to see reality. It turns out that for improving your ability to make decisions variety matters.

Here is a list of some useful metal models:

  • Pareto’s Principle — “For many outcomes roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes.”
  • Murphy’s Law — “Anything that can go wrong, will.”
  • Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) — “A pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.”
  • Butterfly Effect — “The concept that small causes can have large effects.”
  • Parkinson’s Law — “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.”
  • Hofstadter’s Law, “It always takes longer than you expect, even when you consider Hofstadter’s Law.”
  • Eisenhower’s decision matrix — “what is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.”
  • Imposter Syndrome — “High-achieving individuals, marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud.’”
  • Deliberate Practice — “How expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with how one practice than with merely performing a skill many times.”
  • First principles thinking — Breaking down a problem into its fundamental building blocks, and then reassembling them from the ground up. It is one of the best ways to reverse-engineer complicated problems and unleash creative possibilities.
  • Second-order thinking—Thinking farther ahead than just the first level. Not only the immediate consequences of an action but the subsequent effects of those actions as well. Like a chess player thinking many moves ahead.
  • Inversion — Solving hard problems by inverting them or addressing them backward. For example, spend less time trying to be brilliant and more time trying to avoid obvious stupidity.

There are hundreds more mental models. Do you have a favorite one? One which you use a lot.

I used it quite a lot in my writing. I have written about them in an article Mental Models For Writers.

Mistakes I Made In 2022, And Will Make Them Again In 2023

Neera

Okay, I am going to lay it out in the open.

There are several mistakes I made this year, some that caused me a lot of stress, others I am too ashamed to admit.

But I am going to list them here, and openly admit that I am likely to make them again.

I will also give my reasons, and you are welcome to judge me.

I set too many goals for the year.

As the end of 2022 is drawing near, and I was reading my Author Business Plan to see how I fared against it, I realized how ambitious I was while setting goals for the year.

Have a look:

Image by the author

Back in January, I was of the mindset that I would write a book a month, so I had listed 13 non-fiction books that I was going to write. That is more than the number of months in the year!

As if that wasn’t enough, I had jotted in 3 fiction books for a good measure.

But wait, there is more.

I was to create 3 courses, write 100 Medium articles, 52 issues of the newsletter, and 300+ social media posts (mainly LinkedIn).

BIG MISTAKE.

But it is a mistake I am likely to make again in 2023.

Although I didn’t meet many of my goals (only wrote 5 books, one fiction, and 4 non-fiction and only created 1 course), I strived hard to meet them.

I wrote over 300 social media posts, and I am on target to write 100 Medium articles and 52 newsletter issues.

In fact, I surpassed certain goals (wrote 16 extra issues of the newsletter for paid subscribers) and created a bigger and better course ‘Write Your Book In 30 Days,’ and ran 3 iterations of that.

Now, towards the end of the year, I am tired and keep reminding myself not to set so many goals next year. But it is highly likely, after a few days’ rest in the lead up to the New Year, I will start itching to set goals, and I know they won’t be limited.

I like to challenge myself. I know even if I don’t meet all of my goals; I do meet quite a few of them and I am a better person (and a better writer) because of those goals.

So, don’t believe me if I say I am going to have a relaxed year next year.

Set tight deadlines.

I was crazy about setting deadlines.

I would give myself just a month to write a book. Out of that, many days would be consumed in fighting fires and all I would be left with was a couple of weeks at the most. Still, I would keep telling myself that I could do it.

A sane person would give themselves more time, but not me. I am a very tough boss.

BIG MISTAKE.

A mistake I will make again next year, I am afraid.

I have my reasons for that. As my skills are improving and I have put many systems in place, I think I am getting better at meeting deadlines.

Besides, there will always be fires. Life is one big inferno and we shouldn’t spend all our energy to keep putting fires off. Let them burn on the side and we keep doing whatever we think we should do.

Worked on multiple projects at a time.

Alright, I admit, I am a multipotentialite — a person with multiple passions.

I get excited with new ideas and I start working on them straight away. That’s why I end up working on several things at a time. A big drawback of this obsession is, I am not able to give my 100% to each project and many times head straight towards burnout.

BIG MISTAKE.

Working on one project at a time makes you less stressed and has better outcomes. Would you do it, woman?

I am afraid I won’t.

Reason? Whenever I get a new idea, there is an energy associated with it. I want to cash in on that energy. It leads to me getting in the flow state and finishing that project in half the time. Yes, the scheduled project suffers, and sometimes doesn’t get finished at all. But I accept that and take the blame for it. But I do not want to keep working on a project just because I have scheduled it for that time.

I love acting on whims. Spontaneity is a big driver in my creative life.

Didn’t write a detailed diary during the holidays.

There was so much material that I could have written an article every day. Instead, I chose to relax and enjoy the day. Sometimes I would just read, other times I would catch up on my sleep.

I did share some travel stories through LinkedIn posts and my newsletter, but that was all.

BIG MISTAKE.

I missed out on the opportunity to write about the unique and profound experiences I was having.

Would I repeat the mistake and write an extensive journal in future travels?

Probably not.

There are several reasons for that. First, there is hardly any free time during travel. Whenever there is, I am so tired and I prefer to sleep rather than fight the fatigue and write.

Second, memories form after the travel is over. During travels, things feel mundane and trivial. Allow a few months to pass and memories start popping up and stories start forming. That’s the time to write a travel memoir.

So, please forgive me if I do not write detailed travel articles while traveling.

Ignored my health

Okay, I admit, year after year, I am making the same mistakes.

Choosing to sit in front of the computer rather than going for a walk (even when the weather is good, like right now).

Choosing to eat unhealthy food rather than the healthy options which are readily available.

But unhealthy choices are much more inviting and taste much better. I keep opting for sugary treats, cakes, bread, and carbs in any form.

BIG MISTAKE.

I am old enough (and wise enough) to know that I should eat better to escape the dreadful consequences of unhealthy eating.

Would I change my unhealthy habits?

Unlikely.

Doesn’t matter how hard I try, I get better for a few days and then revert to old habits.

My excuse — life is for enjoyment. In a few years’ time, I won’t be able to eat much. Why not enjoy the better-tasting food while I can?

(Okay, okay. I get it. I am working on this one and promise to be a bit better next year.)

Alright, these were my frank admission of the mistakes I made this year and will perhaps continue to make.

It is your turn now.

What mistakes did you make this year and think you will continue to make next year too?

Share them in the comment section. Don’t be shy. We are all friends here!

To make you feel better about making mistakes, I will leave you with a quote from Neil Gaiman:

I hope that in this year to come; you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, and changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Seven Things About Which I Changed My Mind This Year (For The Better)

Neera

Gym Time

I used to leave going to the gym to the end of the day. This year I started going in the mornings.

I have two alarms in the morning. 6:00 AM, when I get up, brush my teeth, and then meditate and write in my journal till the second alarm goes off at 7:00 AM. This is when I change and head for the gym. The group classes start at 7:30 AM. I aim to attend five each week. I am so pleased that I have been able to stick to the routine for most of the days unless I was traveling.

Weight Management

I gave up on losing weight for the past three years. No matter what I did, my weight was not moving. Thinking I can’t lose the middle age mid-section, I had made my peace with my bulging tummy.

But during travels, it got ridiculously big. So much so that I started feeling disgusted. This year, I accepted that I am addicted to sugar and I will always need to be on some sort of program to keep it under check. I joined Weight Watchers again (I am a life member) and beginning to lose weight a bit by bit.

Intermittent Fasting

I resisted intermittent fasting for 3 years, thinking I can’t do it. This year, I started having breakfast at midday rather than at 9:30 AM. I was one of those who thought breakfast was the most important meal of the day and that one ought to have a good breakfast each morning.

Not true. I could easily stretch the breakfast till mid-day. That helped me skip a meal a day. Now I can fast for 16 hours and eat only in an 8-hour window. I am getting used to staying a little hungry and don’t reach for food at the first sign of hunger.

Speaking To A Camera

I thought I will never be comfortable talking to a camera. This year I recorded the ‘Write Your Book In 30 Days’ course in two days flat. Later in the year, I did a course on public speaking. Now I am much more comfortable in front of the camera.

Meditation

I thought I was done with meditation. It was useful when my life was chaotic and stressful. I learned active meditation and found that I can tap into inspiration and intuition any time I want with 5-minute meditation exercises.

Shitty Drafts

I was taught to write shitty drafts for books and polish them later with several edits. This year I learned, it saves a lot of time to write once and to write a good first draft. I have given up writing shitty drafts anymore. This year, during NaNoWriMo, I published my novel on Medium as I wrote it. You can read it here.

Cyclic Writing

I used to think my work has to go through several edits before publishing. I learned Dean Wesley Smith’s method of cyclic writing and applied it to my writing. It worked like magic.

Dean has written over 200 novels and 100 short stories. He has won several awards as well. He hates rewriting. His process is, which he calls ‘cycling,’ to write 500–600 words, read and edit them, and then write the next 500 words.

I realized I follow this process when I write articles on Medium. I now have adopted it as my primary process, both for fiction and non-fiction.

What have you changed your mind about this year?

Want To Build Good Habits, Start With Routines

Neera

As I sat in my bed, earphones in my ears, listing to the calming music, I did my morning meditation.

Five minutes later, I opened my eyes, grabbed my journal and my favorite pen, and started writing the thoughts and the ideas I received in that short meditative state.

Twenty minutes later, after following an invigorating, productive, and short morning routine, I was ready to face the day.

I also had enough material to write an article later in the day.

The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine — Mike Murdock

We need routines.

When I wake up in the morning, I brush my teeth and then sit in bed and meditate. That is my morning routine. It starts my day.

When I start working, I open my computer and check my emails and Slack messages. That’s my work routine. It helps me get into a work mindset.

We need routines to guide us.

Journaling is one of the several routines I have developed to get me straight into the writer’s mindset. Writing in a journal each morning helps me collect my thoughts so that I can become more intentional with my time.

Ending my day with a personal daily debrief in the daily diary is a routine that helps me evaluate what I accomplished in the day.

In all these routines, I learn how to be efficient with my time and how to match what I do with what I care about.

The opposite of routine is chaos.

Chaos is a deep rut leading nowhere.

It is also known as bad habits such as giving up to distractions and procrastination.

It is letting your monkey mind take over and lead you in the wrong direction to reach unimportant goals.

When we feel stressed, tired, or derailed, a routine helps us get back on course.

“The right routine gives us the equivalent of an energy rebate. Instead of spending our limited supply of discipline on making the same decision again and again, embedding our decisions into a routine allows us to channel that discipline toward some other essential activity.”

There’s a sense of well-being that comes when we complete tasks.

Routines help us form habits.

Think about driving a car. You check and adjust your mirrors, put your feet on the brake, start the car, and release the handbrake. You do all these steps without noticing because they have become habits.

Habits form when we follow a predetermined routine.

The best routines lead to the best results.

Routines set a tone for developing good habits that last your entire life.

A good habit means you’re driving in the fast lane. Buckle up and hold on for the ride! You’ll reach your destination quickly and efficiently.

A bad habit means you’re in the slow land or, worse, stuck on the side of the road. Constant distractions and derailments keep you from making progress.

The more details of our daily life we can hand over to the routines, the more capacity our mind will have to do the proper work.

A good routine is not only a source of great comfort and stability, but it’s also the platform from which stimulating and fulfilling work is possible. — Ryan Holiday

You can follow the routine at any time or place during the day. I write my journal even on holidays. And if for some reason, I can’t write it in the morning, I will write at the first opportunity I get during the day. Because journaling has become a habit.

This month I started publishing an article a day. I am still setting up the routine. Some days I get it done early in the morning. On other days, life interferes, and I have to stay up late at night writing. Slowly, a routine will form, and I will be able to perform this task like several others without thinking much about it.

Back in mid-June 2021, I wrote and published a book in one week. That was an act of extreme productivity. But it was not sustainable.

Small changes to build a routine that leads to forming habits are more sustainable.

Like John Maxwell said, “You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret to your success is found in your daily routine.”

Build routines and turn them into habits.

Don’t Just Look For A Solution To A Problem (Instead, focus on what you want.)

Neera

I prided myself as a great problem solver when a casual talk with a friend opened my eyes to another possibility — to be more than just a problem solver.

I was on the phone with a friend and after an hour-long catch-up, I made the remark to wrap up the conversation, “I am glad we found the solution to my problem.”

This friend of mine is a coach, and she opened her coaching practice recently after eighteen months of wilderness. My remark led to a full-blown coaching session with her in which she probed me to examine my thinking.

“Rather than focusing on solving the problem, think about what you really want. How and when won’t be the questions when you know what you really want,” she said.

She was right.

Problem-solving gives us only a limited range of possibilities.

Her advice reminded me of something I read in Robert Fritz’s book The Path Of Least Resistance.

When you focus on solving a problem, you can’t help inheriting the assumptions baked into it.

The focus limits you to a very narrow range of outcomes, all of them leading towards, ‘I want this problem to go away.’

When you take action to lessen a problem, you have less of a problem — so, of course, you are less motivated to keep addressing it.

Let’s say, we resolve to make some improvement — in our life, our relationships, our finances, and our community — it works for a while, but then it fizzles out, and we resume our old ways.

We blame a lack of self-discipline or conclude that circumstances were against us.

But there’s a more intriguing explanation for this sort of defeat.

What if ‘solving the problem’ was the reason we cannot solve the problem?

Fritz suggests:

Instead of focusing on the problem, ask yourself, what do you want to create?

If we focus on creating rather than problem-solving, we will feel less discouraged by the discrepancy between what we want and what we think we ought to do.

That is the dilemma we all go through more than we like. We face predicaments arising from contradictions, variance, inconsistencies, and expectations.

According to Fritz:

Creators have a higher ability to tolerate discrepancies than most others. This is because discrepancy is the stock in the trade of the creator.

When you create, you become a player of forces, such as — contrasts, opposites, similarities, differences, time, balance, and so on. To the creator, all these forces are useful.

When there is more discrepancy, there is more force to work with.

If there is less, there is more momentum as you move toward the final creation of the result.

Creating is no problem and problem-solving is not creating.

When choosing what to create, you do not choose what you do not want. You choose what you want.

A creator’s motivation is different. Their motivation is for their creation to exist.

A creator creates to bring the creation into being.

A creator creates regardless of his emotions.

For creators, emotions are not the centerpiece of their lives, they do not pander to them. They create what they create, not in reaction to their emotions, but independently of them.

They can create on days filled with the depths of despair. They can create on days filled with the heights of joy.

As a creator, you become a river, going through life and taking the path of least resistance.

More of life should be approached as creation rather than problem-solving.

Decide what you want, take stock of your reality, and then take the necessary actions to invent the outcome you seek.

My friend’s advice changed my whole outlook. I no longer focus on problems, but stay tuned to what I want. What I really, really want. Once I figure that out, the ‘how’ and ‘when’ take care of themselves.